Full time work is about to get scarcer. The reason? By hiring part-time workers who put in less than 30 hours per week, employers can avoid a mandate dictated by the new health reform law: either provide expensive health insurance or pay a fine equal to $2,000 per worker. Avoiding the mandate becomes even more attractive for low-wage employees, since they can get highly subsidized insurance in the newly created health insurance exchanges. According to the Wall Street Journal:

 Darden Restaurants [parent of Red Lobster and Olive Garden] was among the first companies to say it was changing hiring in response to the health-care law.

 Pillar Hotels & Resorts this summer began to focus more on hiring part-time workers among its 5,500 employees, after the Supreme Court upheld the health-care overhaul.

 Home retailer Annas Linens Inc. is considering cutting hours for some full-time employees to avoid the insurance mandate if the healthcare law isnt repealed.

 In a July survey, 32% of retail and hospitality company respondents told [Mercer] that they were likely to reduce the number of employees working 30 hours a week or more.

Clearly the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is a major factor holding back economic recovery. But its not alone. Other public policies enacted during the Obama administrations first four years have been affecting the supply side of the market.

A new book by University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan estimates that about half the precipitous 2007-2011 decline in the labor-force-participation rate and in hours worked can be blamed on easier eligibility rules for unemployment insurance, food stamps and housing aid.

The annual value in average benefits for not working rose to $14,000 per recipient in 2011  the high was $16,000 in 2009  up from $10,000 in 2007. Such increases were inversely related to changes in average hours worked. On average, Americans worked a stunning 120 fewer hours in 2009 than in 2007  the largest contraction in work effort of any recession since the Depression. Since 2009, work hours and labor-force participation have remained at record lows even though the recession officially ended in June 2009.

Another frequently heard explanation for the slow recovery is the Keynesian idea that there has been a lack of consumer spending  which caused businesses to cut production and lay off workers. Yet:

Mulligan shows that, during the worst of the 2008-09 troubles, most sectors outside of hard-hit construction and manufacturing increased their use of production inputs other than labor hours. Businesses perceive labor to be more expensive than it was before the recession began, Mulligan writes. The reason for the added cost was that easier requirements for benefits  even as the government was pumping stimulus money into the economy  unwittingly reduced the supply of workers.

Obama&Co own the mess 100% only the democrat party voted for socialism and the idiot sheep keep voting for them.
When they suck the rich dry and the money is gone and it will just maybe to freeloaders will get the hint.

The libs do not want people to have to work. They want them just to lollygag and be dependent on the feds. I think the lost jobs are part of O’s plan. He doesn’t care if Hostess goes down, he doesn’t care if everyone works 20 hours a week and the government takes care of the whole lot of them.

As long as the fedgov can keep spending $1.40 for every $1 in revenue, the effects of the bad economy aren’t felt because so many benefits are distributed to those not working. The Baraqqis used the national credit card to buy another term with the media cheering them on.

We all know the economic engine is gonna blow eventually, and I dearly hope it happens in the next 4 yrs.

“As long as the fedgov can keep spending $1.40 for every $1 in revenue, the effects of the bad economy arent felt because so many benefits are distributed to those not working.”

I think those people are feeling it; the “freebies” can’t keep up with inflation, and in the meantime their welfare reservations are deteriorating. Anything not nailed down is stolen within minutes, and the police (who never enforced the law anyway, unless it was a violent crime) have been reduced.

Every person that gets laid off is no longer paying income taxes, but instead, ends up taking benefits. It’s a double-whammy to the beast. Some say that the sooner and quicker the beast is starved, the better. One thing seems very apparent; it’s gonna get a whole lot uglier before it gets any better. When those EBT cards stop working and the store shelves go empty, we will be in the nightmare land of the Walking Dead.

Yup, big uptick on theft and it is getting worse. I was visiting in my former neighborhood where I had lived 20+ years, in Fresno, CA, and it had been so well kept up, raised my kids there. My friends tell me things have changed. Now, every few houses there is one in foreclosure, the ones being rehabbed by FHA or lenders prior to re-sale are surrounded by 6’ security wire fencing,but are still getting broken into after dark and carpeting and new appliances being stolen from then, at least one has had new appliances stolen twice. Yet we have reduction in effect of the police force.

The libs do not want people to have to work. They want them just to lollygag and be dependent on the feds. I think the lost jobs are part of Os plan. He doesnt care if Hostess goes down, he doesnt care if everyone works 20 hours a week and the government takes care of the whole lot of them.

Dependent Sheep serve him best.

I suppose when he's depleted all the money he can print and borrow and tax then we'll move on to Cloward Piven in which he'll impose the new order on the country he destroyed. Maybe the muslims will step in with a lot of oil money to "rescue" us after we agree to their terms.

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